Resources

Activities/Competitions

National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC)

CCDC competitions ask student teams to assume administrative and protective duties for an existing “commercial” network – typically a small company with 50+ users, 7 to 10 servers, and common Internet services such as a web server, mail server, and e-commerce site. Each team begins the competition with an identical set of hardware and software and is scored on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats, maintain availability of existing services such as mail servers and web servers, respond to business requests such as the addition or removal of additional services, and balance security needs against business needs. Throughout the competition an automated scoring engine is used to verify the functionality and availability of each team’s services on a periodic basis and traffic generators continuously feed simulated user traffic into the competition network. A volunteer red team provides the “external threat” all Internet-based services face and allows the teams to match their defensive skills against live opponents.

“You have just been hired as the network and security administrators at a small company and will be taking administrative control of all information systems. You know very little about the network, what security level has been maintained, or what software has been installed. You have a limited time frame to familiarize yourself with the network and systems and to begin the security updates and patches before the red team starts actively attacking your company. In the midst of all the commotion, you have to keep up with the needs of the business and user demands while maintaining service level agreements for all critical Internet services. Welcome to the first day of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC).”

Information Security Talent Search (ISTS)

Information Security Talent Search (ISTS) is a two-day cyber security competition for college students, which sets up teams of five competitors with a simulated corporate network they have to secure and defend against attacks from the "Red Team". The competition also uniquely permits blue teams to attack other blue teams, creating opportunities for competitors to play both offense and defense.

This competition is organized by SPARSA, you can see photos from the competition on